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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



\'OL. 66 



THE INDIANA MASTODON 

 Each year the Museum receives reports of many finds of mastodon 

 and mammoth remains, es])ecially from different locahties in those 

 States bordering on the Great Lakes. These " fincfs," which come 

 for the most j)art from swamp deposits of the Pleistocene, usually 

 consist of a few isolated bones or teeth, but they give evidence of 

 the great abundance of these larger creatures which roamed over 

 this continent during the geological age just ])receding tlie present. 

 Compared, however, with the great number of remains found, com- 

 plete skeletons are rare. This is due in large part to the fact that 

 by far the greater num])er of the finds are made by men of no 



Fir,. 41. — Ditch where Indiana masttxlon was found. The k)ny iron rod was 

 used in probing in the swamp for the remains. Photograph by Gidley. 



experience in collecting and usually little or no knowledge of what 

 they are finding. The National Museum is therefore fortunate in 

 the recent accjuisition of a fine, nearly complete adult male mastodon 

 skeleton from a swamp deposit in northwestern Indiana. 



This specimen was donated to the National Museum by Mr. W. D. 

 Fattison of Winamac, Indiana, and Captain H. H. Pattison, U. S. 

 Army, on whose farm, about 15 miles northwest of Winamac, it 

 was found. 



A part of the skull, four limb bones, a few ribs and vertebne, were 

 unearthed by a dredge crew while excavating a drainage canal on 

 the Pattison farm in the spring of 1914 (see fig. 41). On learning 

 of the discovery. Mr. Pattison took immediate steps to preserve these 

 bones, but before he could prevent it a few of them were carried 



